UK private equity firm 3i brushes up €102m from cosmetic business sale July 4, 2016 Private equity group 3i has announced the sale of a German company which makes cosmetic brushes. Geka has been sold to Swiss company Sulzer, which specialises in "pumping solutions, rotating equipment services, and separation and mixing technology", for €178m (£149m). The UK-listed company made €102m from today’s transaction as well as €23m from a refinancing in [...]
Pure Gym strengthens earnings and bulks up market position April 15, 2016 Pure Gym's revenues were up 82 per cent to £125m in 12 months to the end of 2015 following a year of major expansion into central London. Group EBITDA was up 46 per cent to £28m and EBIT was up 77 per cent to £13.5m. The UK's biggest gym operator underwent a period of expansion in 2015, opening 48 [...]
Hollywood Bowl float expected to kick off strong period for London IPO market September 18, 2016 Hollywood Bowl is set to float on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) this week, kicking off what is set to be an active post-summer period for the market in initial public offerings (IPOs). “If the markets hold up, then I think we’re going to be very busy,” Mark Austin, a capital markets partner at law firm Freshfields [...]
Holiday Homes: Rare homes for sale in the middle of the Indian Ocean, from Soneva Group, first company to sell property internationally in the Maldives October 21, 2016 Falling asleep under the stars in the Maldives sounds like the sort of once-in-a-lifetime experience reserved for honey-mooning couples. But it could be a regular part of your life, at least for a few weeks a year, if you invest in one of the properties on sale at the newly-opened Soneva Jani, which is the [...]
Meet Tom Vernon, the former Manchester United scout and founder of Africa’s top football academy out to turn the sport on its head December 21, 2016 There is something extraordinary about the union between FC Nordsjaelland, an unremarkable Danish first division football club to the north-west of Copenhagen, and the Right To Dream academy in Ghana. It is not just because the club, from the modest 19,000-person town of Farum, is some 5,000 miles away from Right To Dream’s football-oriented residential [...]
New homes on sale in London this weekend: from the biggest development in Chelsea for a century to the regeneration of Catford July 21, 2016 Chelsea Waterfront From £1.55m Overseas buyers are showing a strong interest in new homes at Chelsea Waterfront following the EU Referendum result, according to its developer Hutchinson Property Group. The first phase of the redevelopment of the former Lots Road Power Station has sold out, and 17 out of 28 units remain in the second [...]
Britain gets into shape as spending on gyms soars August 17, 2015 Britain's obsession with fitness has showed no signs of slowing over the past year as spending on gym memberships soared 44 per cent. Budget fitness chains such as Pure Gym and the Gym Group have helped to shake-up the sector over the last five years by offering cheap memberships, scrapping contracts and catering to people [...]
CommuterClub’s co-founders talk desk dividers and the future of mobility October 24, 2016 We sat opposite each other and, although there was a barrier between us (a physical desk divider) we’d work late into the night and bounce ideas around,” says Petko Plachkov, co-founder of travel payment plan firm CommuterClub. He’s describing working at fintech legend Clive Cowdery’s firm, the Resolution Group, with his co-founder, Imran Gulamhuseinwala. “I joined [...]
Seven locations that show just how crazy the Pokemon Go craze is July 13, 2016 It's been less than a week, but we're all now living in a Pokemon World. At a time of deep political uncertainty, many are no doubt welcoming a little light distraction, but the obsession might well have some influence on the next round of productivity figures as everyone attempts to catch 'em all. The craze has certainly unearthed some insights into human nature, [...]
UK private equity firm 3i sells German jeweller called Amor for £89m April 18, 2016 FTSE 100-listed 3i Group said today that it's sold German jewellery business Amor to another private equity firm for around £89m. 3i made total proceeds of €197m (£156.1m) from selling the Frankfurt-based affordable jewellery company to Gilde Buy Out Partners, representing a 2.5 times euro multiple, or 2.3 times sterling multiple. Read more: 3i Group considers floating discount gym chain 3i's proceeds of £89m is also equivalent [...]